Here's the disclaimer part. All the X-men characters are Marvel's, sue me and I'll be forced to sell my beloved used-tissue collection which would break my heart! David, Alex and Danny are mine, if you want to use them then go right ahead. Please, please, please review! Cheers
Part 6
"What the bloody hell is that alarm for?" David shouted sleepily as he rushed out of his bedroom only to slam straight into Logan, sending them both to the floor. "Sorry about that mate." He said, sheepishly.
Wolverine got up with an almost impossibly deep growl coming from him, "Just watch your step bub or next time you won't just lose your footing." And with that, turned away and ran down towards the War room.
"Well, aren't we all just happy campers this morning," David muttered as he followed the X-man down the stairs. " Hey, Rogue!" He called out as he saw her emerging out of the women's wing of the mansion. "What the hells going on? Is there a fire or something?"
"It ain't no fire sugah, " She said as they met at the top of the stairs." Sound's like there's something going on that needs the X-men's attention, why doncha come along? There ain't many of the team around at the moment and we might need y'all."
"Um, sure! If you think that'd be ok?"
Since his arrival at the mansion, the X-men had gone on a number of missions but he had never taken part in them. His training in the Danger room had definitely paid off and he was gaining greater control over his powers every day but it still didn't mean that he was anything remotely resembling the finished article.
"We might need ya as backup, in case anything goes wrong or sumthing." Rogue put a supportive arm around his shoulders as they entered the lift. "Don't worry sugah" She said, "Y'all be fine."
***
"We've had report's coming in of a disturbance in Genosha," Cyclops began, his concentration focused on the screen as it displayed all the available information on the situation. "It seems a number of mutants have attacked a city in the northern part of the country and are causing widespread damage throughout the area."
Turning to look at the occupants in the room, he saw Wolverine continuing to chew on the end of his cigar, Gambit simply displayed an evil grin and carried on shuffling his cards while the Professor sat in the corner, his attention focused on something on the other side of the room. Cyclops followed his gaze and saw Rogue and Shadowcat at the other end of the table whispering to David.
"David?"
"Uh, yes?"
"What are you doing here?" He asked, clearly shocked at the young man's presence in the room.
"Ah asked him to come, "Rogue interjected, "We don't have many team members at the moment and ah thought we could use the help."
"Well, this isn't going to be a walk in the park and I don't think David's up to this sort of challenge just yet."
"Ah, give the kid a break One Eye," Wolverine growled, "He's been givin' me a decent fight lately," David and Kitty looked at each other and smiled. "He'll hold his own."
"Gambit agree wit Logan on dis one, " The Cajun added, leaning back on his chair and planting his feet on the table. "What can I say, de boy have good teachers non?"
Rogue playfully swiped his feet off the table, "Obviously not very good manners though, swamp rat."
Cyclops looked at David questioningly, "Do you think you're ready?"
The rest of the room all turned to look at the man as he shuffled nervously in his chair. "A trial by fire huh? Well I know I've got a long way to go with my powers but I'd like to help if I could."
The X-man thought for a while, "Ok, you're on the team but just as back-up ok?"
"Y-yeah, sure." David replied, a bit shocked at his acceptance by the team leader.
"Right, that's settled," Cyclops said, returning to gaze over the whole room. " I want everyone in the hanger and ready to go in ten, let's go people."
As the rest of the group began to filter out of the meeting, David went to stop Wolverine, "Logan!" He called out.
The diminutive X-man turned around to face the younger man. "What?" He said gruffly as David caught up with him and they continued down the corridor.
"I just wanted to thank you for speaking up for me back there, it means a lot that you think I'm ready."
"Ya can thank me by not messin' up and getting yourself, or someone else, killed kid." Logan replied tersely but regretted his words as soon as he had spoken them, "Ah shit, look kid. Yer getting better but ya can never be fully ready in this line o'work. Keep yer head down and take notes alright? Ya need experience and that's what this is gonna give yer, in spades."
***
Angela Carter had never been so scared in her life. From her hiding place, beneath the collapsed arch of a building, she could see the devastation clearly. All along the main road of the city, people were running for their lives as buildings fell apart around them with the sheer brutality of the attack. The scream's could be heard for miles. It had all happened so quickly, one minute the day had been like any other, shoppers paraded the streets in search of the next bargain. The next, pandemonium. Five heralds of death had descended from the sky and unleashed their furious wrath on the people below them. Five beings with powers and abilities that set them apart from any normal human. Mutants. And they were pretty damn annoyed.
Suddenly there was an explosion to her left and Angela screamed in fright, running out of her hiding place and away from the blast. She jumped up and quickly scanned the area, looking for any trouble but could find none. A small crevice on the other side of the street took her notice as another place to hide and, eyes darting wildly about in fright, began to make her way across the desolate space.
"Well, look at this," Someone said near to her. Angela span round quickly but could find no-one.
"Who's there?" She said, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible.
"No-one it seems." Came a mirthful chuckle behind her.
She span around again but could still see no-one near. "Show yourself, you coward!" She shouted into the open space.
Angela stiffened as a strong hand reached down and grabbed her head, she was forced to lift her head up so that she was looking into the sky. There was only blue until a figure, hovering above the ground, came into her field of vision.
"Hello," The figure said, "Pleased to meet you!" He continued with a sinister smile on his face.
Angela screamed and tried to run but the man's grip was too strong and she ended up falling onto the ground. To her side the man landed softly and strode up to her, grabbing her chin in his hand.
"I suppose it would be fitting for you to know who your executioner is, flatscan." He said and quickly pulled her face nearer to his, his grin widened evilly. "The name is Chrome."
"Mon dieu mes amis, dat don't be no way to pick up de girls non?" He heard to his left, he turned his head but, before he could react, a bolt of red energy hit him side-on and blasted him away from the girl.
Chrome picked himself up from the ground shakily and took in his assailants.
"Wolverine, Gambit," Cyclops ordered, "Get him."
The two X-men moved as one towards the target, Gambit taking the high ground over the debris while Wolverine stayed low and moved around to the side of the man. Chrome took in the threat and blasted into the air determined to get back to his comrades, "You can't get me like that gene-traitors," He shouted behind him as Cyclops fired into the air in an attempt to down him. "Catch me if you can!"
"Damn it"" He shouted as he turned to the others, "Rogue, take Wolverine and track him down, let us know when you find the group but don't attack until we get there. I'll give David a call and see if he can find them using the Blackbirds sensors."
"A'm on it Cyke." Rogue called out as she flew over to Wolverine, "Come on Logan, I bet we find 'em before the Blackbird does."
"Sound's like a bet darlin'," He replied with a smile, Rogue returned the gesture and lifted him into the air and towards the fleeing mutant.
***
David sat in the cockpit of the Blackbird, twirling around in his chair as he waited for news on the others. He felt even more useless than usual. God, when are they gonna get in touch, he thought, nervousness apparent in his constant fidgeting.
He had eventually cracked from the pressure and started to pace up and down the walkway when the radio finally sprung into life. "Pulse are you there?" The voice crackled over the com systems, "This is Cyclops over?"
David rushed over to the panel and held down the send button, "I'm here Cyclops," He replied breathlessly, "How's it going?"
"We found one of them but he managed to escape," The tone alone told David that Cyclops was not a happy man. "We need you to pinpoint their location with the Blackbirds sensors. Search for mutagenic signatures."
"On it, " Pulse replied and rushed over to the sensors and began typing in a few commands. Shit, I wish Kitty were here, she'd know what the hell she was doing, he thought nervously. He had been taught about the planes systems but any kind of higher brain functions had kind of gone out the window since they had first landed, plus it'd be pretty nice if Kitty were here anyhow….
"Pulse?" Cyclops said impatiently over the radio.
David shook his head, do not go there you bloody fool, he berated himself, now is definitely not the time." It's coming up now," He shouted over as, indeed, the viewer changed to display a map of the city and the different mutants within it's sensors range.
"There's three at your position and two flying away from you on a northward trajectory."
"That'll be Rogue and Wolverine," Cyclops interjected, "I sent them ahead to see if we could find them that way."
"Oh, right, well it looks like their going the right way, there's another group of mutants just up ahead from them. In fact," He paused.
"What?"
"Their right on top of them and, oh shit." David said, unable to keep the worry from his voice. "From the way that all the different signatures are moving around, I reckon our friends have decided to come out to play."
Cyclops bit back a curse and signalled the rest of the group to follow him "We're on our way, how far are they from us?"
"Take the next right and they should only be a couple of hundred meters from you."
"200? If we were that close we'd have heard the battle." Cyclops thought aloud, as he, Gambit and Shadowcat ran up to the corner of the street.
"Um, well, their kind of closing…" David didn't need to finish the sentence as a very large man flew past in front of Cyclops closely followed by, a very angry looking, Rogue.
"A've got a good mind to show y'all what happens when ya don't respect a lady like ma'self." She shouted angrily at the figure currently trying to pull himself out of the building he had just been punched into.
"Bout time the damn cavalry showed up Cyke." Wolverine shouted over his shoulder as the remaining X-men entered the fray. "Maybe now we can put these jokers away."
"Gene-traitors!" A female mutant shouted, "You X-men should be helping us punish this god-forsaken country for it's crimes against our kind not protect it." She added as she whirled around, aiming her pulse rifle towards the oncoming X-men.
With a speed that defies description, Gambit took a card from his deck and let it fly towards her, "Times change chere, "He said as the card detonated behind the woman and she was thrown forward with the force of the explosion. "The gov'ment changed since dose times too, tryin' to make ting's right non?" He jumped over some debris and, in one smooth movement, pulled out his bo-staff, extended it and brought it down on the mutants head.
"One down, just a few more to go." Shadowcat said wryly while phasing through a punch and ending up on the other side of the attacker. She quickly flipped round, turned tangible, and knocked him down with a roundhouse kick to the head.
"Who are you people?" Cyclops demanded, firing an optic blast at another mutant. A sledgehammer punch to the side of the face sent him to the ground and stopped him from adding anything else.
"I'm Frenzy," The female mutant answered, sporting a malicious grin as she looked down at the fallen leader, "And we are the Acolytes."
"Acolytes eh?" Wolverine growled as he threw himself at the woman, a small grin betraying his enjoyment of the fight "Sound's like a stupid name ta me darlin'." He forced her onto the floor and pinned her down, the telltale sound indicating the unsheathing of his claws, "I've got a few names for yer right here."
Lifting his head groggily, Cyclops saw the two and recognised Wolverines berserker rage taking over. "Wolverine, don't." He rasped.
"Don't worry leader-man," Frenzy replied, using her super-strength to pull out of his grip and punch him to the other side of the street. "He's not going to do anything."
Cyclops got to his feet, staring angrily at the Acolyte. "He's going to do a whole lot more than you." And then unleashed an optic blast at the woman that sent her smashing into the building behind her and knocking her unconscious.
***
David sat in front of the display of the Blackbird, silently watching the numerous symbols - indicating the various mutants - constantly moving around in a fiercely chaotic dance. He couldn't tell who was winning or what was happening and he had never felt so useless in all of his life.
A new symbol caught his eye as it appeared on the screen and David's eyes widened as he noted that the computer had managed to recognise the mutagenic signature. Comprehension slowly dawned on him as to the danger the X-men now faced and panic began to set in. He raced to the comm. system and tried to raise the team, fumbling with the radio in his haste.
"Cyclops!" He almost shouted down the line, "Cyclops do you hear me?"
There was no response, only an intermittent, hissing noise.
"Cyclops, this Pulse, do you read me over?"
Still no reply. He growled absently as he smacked the console with the palm of his hand. "Come on you stupid piece of shit, work! Cyclops, come on, answer me!" Realising that the radio must be broken, David howled in frustration.
"Shit, shit, shit! Now what the hell do I do?"
Slowly he turned and stared at the exit, knowing that the only way to tell the others was to go out there himself, David gritted his teeth and headed outside.